Raskh

Raskh © 2006 Janet Parke
Based on an original image by Gilles Nadeau.

Recently, Gilles Nadeau invited me to play around with an image he created in 2004. For several reasons, I rarely tweak others' images. In most cases, I find it's almost impossible for me to alter someone else's work without imposing my style upon it. I can always make changes, of course, but I would not presume that they are improvements over the original artist's vision for his work. But in this case, I believe that is what Gilles desired when he sent me the parameters – to see his image through my artistic eyes.

Gilles' original image was an 11-layer study of a tree. Rather than make drastic changes to his original layers (I only made small adjustments to the gradients of two layers, and changed just one layer's merge mode) or add additional elements to the image, my approach was to introduce nuance into the colors, textures, and tree structure through some extensive masking (eight additional mask layers). I also added three layers of discreet coloring, but in the end, one might say that my process was not so much adding to Gilles' image as it was taking subtle pieces away.

My version is definitely a derivative of Gilles' image, but he has graciously given me permission to post my version here and in my galleries.

Janet